New Rockford Transcript - Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Articles written by Nick Simonson

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Our Outdoors: A year of lessons

The lessons learned coming out of the drought in 2022, where a wet spring spurred regrowth of upland grasses and the thickening of the cattail sloughs which remained on the landscape, are many....

 

Our Outdoors: Turn it Up for Late Season Pheasants

Late season pheasant hunting is by far my favorite. The throngs of people have disappeared from the landscape as colder, snowier, and windier conditions generally keep the fair weather uplanders insid...

 

Four Gifts for the Youth Trapshooter

While the spring trap shooting season – be it organized through the North Dakota State High School Clay Target League ("ND CTL" at ndclaytarget.com) – or via a local shooting sports club, may be...

 

Our Outdoors: New Ceilings

While shooting the breeze in between rounds of trap this fall, one shooter explained his use of livescope sonar under the ice last season to pick off schools of perch on a favorite water we both...

 

Invest in Ice Cleats

I remember the early morning mental image as clear as the ringing in my head that followed. Walking over to pick up the auger from the last in my line of ice holes, I was suddenly staring at my boots...

 

Our Outdoors: Sudden Shift

It's strange how one day in November, you can be staring out at a beige and brown field, watching deer move back and forth, going about their annual chase in an effort to beget the next generation;...

 

Sportsman Stuffers

The holiday shopping season is underway, and while a number of big-ticket items such as new ice augers, shotguns, and other fishing and hunting must haves top the list of anglers and hunters, its...

 

Our Outdoors: Sudden shift

 It’s strange how one day in November, you can be staring out at a beige and brown field, watching deer move back and forth, going about their annual chase in an effort to beget the next...

 

The video

The video represents not only landowner-sportsman relations at its lowest point, it also comes when communication among people in general has seemingly reached its nadir. In the now infamous clip...

 

Our Outdoors: Catch & Release Hunting

If I could find a way to zap a pheasant in the air without killing it, to have a second or two to hold it and look over its feathers and admire their sheen and the length of the tail growing late...

 

Our Outdoors: Scope it out

There's nothing so clear and so adrenaline inducing as seeing a deer through the reticle of a scope. The movements of the animal are magnified, and if from the right position of concealment at a dista...

 

Deer Hunting at its Best in More Than 100 Years

With firearms deer seasons opening up across the United States, rolling down from the north in the next couple of weeks as the cool weather of mid-fall settles in and sparks rutting behavior across...

 

Our Outdoors: Bucking the trend

A rather startling headline made its way around the internet last week regarding a staggering drop of almost 70 percent of all wildlife species worldwide over the past 50 years. Far beyond clickbait,...

 

Our Outdoors: Thick thoughts

In the dry, crackling brown of a cattail slough is one of my favorite places to be in the fall. When the stand of dense vegetation is about chest high – tall enough to provide a good screen and...

 

Power Your Hunting

Until I became an active hunter, leg day was the worst day in a workout routine. Usually falling on a Friday morning early in the weight room, it was the easiest one to skip and opt for sleeping in...

 

Our Outdoors: At the end

I’m a fan of end-of-the-world movies, particularly those incorporating the zombie genre into their plot. There’s something that piques my interest in those scenarios where nothing is left but a ha...

 

Our Outdoors: On the Upswing

Grass equals birds. Habitat equals deer. Clean water equals fish. These are the things I along with many other hunters and anglers have come to know in the outdoors. I can recall once cutting from...

 

Northwest ND the New Pheasant Destination

With the youth pheasant weekend on tap in just a few days on Sat. Oct. 1, and the general pheasant opener just a week later on Oct. 8, hunters are checking their boots, loading shells in their vests,...

 

Our Outdoors: Paying Attention

 Once in a great while while on the water, or in the tree stand, or even just out for an early morning run, I catch a glimpse of the rising sun before it disappears under the clouds for the day as...

 

Our Outdoors: Ups & Downs

The rolling hills around Big Detroit Lake in western Minnesota typically kick off my autumn, but it isn't the scattering of ruffed grouse in its surrounding woods that elicit my echoing footfalls and...

 

Casting & Blasting Across ND

The next few weeks present a unique overlap of just about everything as September turns into October. From summer festivities and back to school activities, to baseball, football, and even a hint of...

 

Our Outdoors: Big Finish

Often now it seems that summer extends past Labor Day weekend. Where I used to be sprinting around the front yard at the cabin in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, tracking down a lofted spiraling...

 

Summer Good for Late Grouse, Partridge Hatches

With the completion of the roadside brood surveys for North Dakota's upland game, and the sharptailed grouse and Hungarian partridge season opener set for this Saturday, hunters may find a better...

 

Our Outdoors: Four factors for upland game

Hunts are best viewed in hindsight. The thrill of the flush and the clamor of the shot often overpower the memory of the longer, quieter stretches of the walk leading up to those moments. But it is...

 

More and larger muleys a possibility for fall

North Dakota's populations of mule deer heading into the start of archery season are doing well after weathering the rigors of this spring's late snow storms and the drought of 2021, and it is likely...

 

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